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Tune in to the G2Voice Broadcast this Sunday, June 4th at 10 AM CST:www.g2voice.is

ATTENTION: Amsterdam G2 seminar for July 7th-9th has been cancelled! NOTE: We will reschedule a EUROPEAN G2Church Seminar later in the year

This week we are interviewing Don Tolman, an expert on fasting. For 50 years, he has been teaching and helping many “restore health” from dis-ease by fasting and nutrition. He even has been called the Indiana Jones of whole foods. This guy is a wealth of REAL knowledge; TRUE history. I first heard of him when a woman came up to me in a seminar in Texas a few years ago. One of our students asked me if I heard of a man named Don Tolman. When I answered no, she then told me I should listen to some of his videos on YouTube because I am saying the same things he is about dis-ease, toxins, nutrition and self-care. I did just that and was pleasantly surprise to hear Don talking about the same things we have been teaching for years! I wasn’t surprised that he agreed with us but that he knew so much about many things that I personally believe and gave me more evidence to prove it. Let me say this about Don. He believes what we naturally have in REAL WHOLE FOODS is what our body needs to be healthy and remain that way our whole lives. He has helped many people learn to fast and has taken many through 40 days of fasting with incredible success, even those with a terminal dis-ease! We had a VERY interesting 1 hour interview with Don and I’m sure you will agree. Don is one of us with his eyes wide open!

Tune in to the G2Voice Broadcast this Sunday, June 4th at 10 AM CST:www.g2voice.is

I do want to mention a few things about fasting and its benefits before we listen to the interview with Don.

Fasting is found throughout history in many different cultures

Fasting, in the various forms that people have observed throughout history, has been known to have a beneficial effect on health. However, in a religious context, it is primarily a technique for seeking proximity to God and the divine. It seems that every religion knew the practice of fasting in one form or another. In the archaic practices of Hinduism there were certain days of the year set aside for fasting by women, and others for men. In our day, the Brahmin caste in India still observes a complete abstinence from food and drink on the eleventh and twelfth days of every Hindu month.

Hippocrates (400 BCE), the mythical Greek "Father of Medicine," seems to have prescribed total abstinence from food while a "disease" was on the increase, and especially at the critical period, and a sparse diet on other occasions. Fasting was also known to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks. Similarly, the ancient scriptures of Persia advocate fasting and confirm its value as a means for spiritual purification. The Jews of the Old Testament were known to observe fasts on days of danger and misfortune and on several fixed days in their calendar, of which, the best known to non-Jews, is the fast of Yom Kippur. Jesus is said to have fasted forty days and nights before his final entry into Jerusalem. The early Christians, most of whom observed the Mosaic Law, also fasted on the Day of Atonement. However, with time, less emphasis was placed on exact adherence to the practices observed by Jesus. The Lenten fast assumed a largely symbolic role, involving abstention from certain types of food only.

Muslims observe an annual fast, during the month of Ramadan. Between first light and sundown, adult Muslims in good health abstain from food, drink, cigarettes, and sex. The fast lasts for an entire lunar month of between 28 and 30 days. It is described in the Quran thus "so that you may attain taqwa or God-consciousness". It is considered another instrument for bringing believers closer to their natural state and cleansing this state from the dross of any disobedience and corruption.

To most of the world, fasting is going without food and ONLY drinking water for a period of time. Well, that is only one type of fasting. There is for sure a water ONLY fast, but many people are finding benefits from a partial daily fast, one day weekly fast, intermittent fasting, a juice fast or even a combo juice/water fast. Whatever fast you consider, it seems that all of them have health benefits in the body. Here are just some of the benefits research has found about fasting:

During fasting, we rest our system from the constant onslaught of food stuffs. We usually think of food as giving us energy, so it can be a new way of thinking to understand how the food we eat actually requires energy. Digesting, assimilating and metabolizing--these activities require a great deal of energy. It is estimated that 65% of the body's energy must be directed to the digestive organs after a heavy meal.

Free up this energy and it can be diverted to healing and recuperation. It can detox and repair cells, tissues and organs, eliminating foreign toxins as well as the natural metabolic wastes (which are also toxins) produced even by our healthy cells. And this is what the body will do during a fast. It will take advantage of that time and energy to do some housecleaning. The overloaded, overworked system, unable to properly handle all the toxins, has been storing any excesses in the tissues where they can be dealt with later. This is one of the great health benefits of fasting in that it offers this opportunity to play "catch up".Fasting itself isn't necessarily a "cure" for anything. What it does is "set the stage" or create the environment in which healing can occur. Our bodies know how to heal themselves. We just have to "get out of the way", and this means on all levels of our being. Fasting has a way of re balancing us on all those levels. Physically, fasting is of high benefit to the chronic degenerative diseases that are plaguing our population and that modern medicine is at loss to cure.

Fasting for as little as three days can regenerate the entire immune system, even in the elderly, scientists have found in a breakthrough described as "remarkable".

Although fasting diets have been criticized by nutritionists for being unhealthy, new research suggests starving the body kick-starts stem cells into producing new white blood cells, which fight off infection.Scientists at the University of Southern California say the discovery could be particularly beneficial for people suffering from damaged immune systems, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy.It could also help the elderly whose immune system becomes less effective as they age, making it harder for them to fight off even common diseases.The researchers say fasting "flips a regenerative switch" which prompts stem cells to create brand new white blood cells, essentially regenerating the entire immune system."It gives the 'OK' for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system," said Prof Valter Longo, Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the University of California."And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting.“Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system."Prolonged fasting forces the body to use stores of glucose and fat but also breaks down a significant portion of white blood cells.During each cycle of fasting, this depletion of white blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-based regeneration of new immune system cells.In trials humans were asked to regularly fast for between two and four days over a six-month period.Scientists found that prolonged fasting also reduced the enzyme PKA, which is linked to aging and a hormone which increases cancer risk and tumor growth."We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system," added Prof Longo."When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged," Dr. Longo said.

"What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started thinking, well, where does it come from?"Fasting for 72 hours also protected cancer patients against the toxic impact of chemotherapy."We are investigating the possibility that these effects are applicable to many different systems and organs, not just the immune system," added Prof Longo.However, some British experts were skeptical of the research.Dr Graham Rook, emeritus professor of immunology at University College London, said the study sounded "improbable".Chris Mason, Professor of Regenerative Medicine at UCL, said: “There is some interesting data here. It sees that fasting reduces the number and size of cells and then re-feeding at 72 hours saw a rebound.“That could be potentially useful because that is not such a long time that it would be terribly harmful to someone with cancer.“But I think the most sensible way forward would be to synthesize this effect with drugs. I am not sure fasting is the best idea. People are better eating on a regular basis.”Dr Longo added: “There is no evidence at all that fasting would be dangerous while there is strong evidence that it is beneficial.

Neuroscientist Shows What Fasting Does to Your Brain and Why Big Pharma Won’t Study It by ARJUN WALIA

Below is a TEDx talk given by Mark Mattson, the current Chief of the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging. He is also a professor of Neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University, and one of the foremost researchers in the area of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying multiple neurodegenerative disorders, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.I chose to include ‘Big Pharma’ in the title because that’s exactly what it is. There have been countless examples of the manipulation of published research at the hands of pharmaceutical companies in recent years. This is why Harvard Professor of Medicine Arnold Symour Relman told the world that the medical profession has been bought by the pharmaceutical industry. It’s why Dr. Richard Horton, Editor in Chief of The Lancet, recently stated that much of the scientific literature published today is simply untrue. It’s why Dr. Marcia Angell, former Editor in Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, said that the “pharmaceutical industry likes to depict itself as a research-based industry, as the source of innovative drugs. Nothing could be further from the truth.” And it’s why John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, published an article titled “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False” which subsequently became the most widely accessed article in the history of the Public Library of Science (PLoS).I also chose to mention ‘Big Pharma’ because of Dr. Mattson’s comments towards the end of the video.

“Why is it that the normal diet is three meals a day plus snacks? It isn’t that it’s the healthiest eating pattern, now that’s my opinion but I think there is a lot of evidence to support that. There are a lot of pressures to have that eating pattern, there’s a lot of money involved. The food industry — are they going to make money from skipping breakfast like I did today? No, they’re going to lose money. If people fast, the food industry loses money. What about the pharmaceutical industries? What if people do some intermittent fasting, exercise periodically and are very healthy, is the pharmaceutical industry going to make any money on healthy people?”

A study published in the June 5 issue of Cell Stem Cell by researchers from the University of Southern California showed that cycles of prolonged fasting protect against immune system damage and, moreover, induce immune system regeneration. They concluded that fasting shifts stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal. It triggers stem cell based regeneration of an organ or system. Human clinical trials were conducted using patients who were receiving chemotherapy. For long periods of time, patients did not eat, which significantly lowered their white blood cell counts. In mice, fasting cycles “flipped a regenerative switch, changing the signaling pathways for hematopoietic stem cells, which are responsible for the generation of blood and immune systems.”This means that fasting kills off old and damaged immune cells, and when the body rebounds it uses stem cells to create brand new, completely healthy cells.

“We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the heatopoietic system . . . . When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged. What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. ”

– Valter Longo, corresponding author

A scientific review of multiple scientific studies regarding fasting was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2007. It examined a multitude of both human and animal studies and determined that fasting is an effective way to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. It also showed significant potential in treating diabetes.

“Dietary changes have long been known to have an effect on the brain. Children who suffer from epileptic seizures have fewer of them when placed on caloric restriction or fasts. It is believed that fasting helps kick-start protective measures that help counteract the overexcited signals that epileptic brains often exhibit. (Some children with epilepsy have also benefited from a specific high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.) Normal brains, when overfed, can experience another kind of uncontrolled excitation, impairing the brain’s function, Mattson and another researcher reported in January in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.”

Basically, when you take a look at caloric restriction studies, many of them show a prolonged lifespan as well as an increased ability to fight chronic disease.“Calorie restriction (CR) extends life span and retards age-related chronic diseases in a variety of species, including rats, mice, fish, flies, worms, and yeast. The mechanism or mechanisms through which this occurs are unclear.”

Fasting twice a week could significantly lower the risk of developing both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

The quote above is from a review of the literature that is more than 10 years old. The work presented here is now showing some of these mechanisms that were previously unclear.Fasting does good things for the brain, and this is evident by all of the beneficial neurochemical changes that happen in the brain when we fast. It also improves cognitive function, increases neurotrophic factors, increases stress resistance, and reduces inflammation.Fasting is a challenge to your brain, and your brain responds to that challenge by adapting stress response pathways which help your brain cope with stress and risk for disease. The same changes that occur in the brain during fasting mimic the changes that occur with regular exercise. They both increase the production of protein in the brain (neurotrophic factors), which in turn promotes the growth of neurons, the connection between neurons, and the strength of synapses.“Challenges to your brain, whether it’s intermittent fasting [or] vigorous exercise . . . is cognitive challenges. When this happens neuro-circuits are activated, levels of neurotrophic factors increase, that promotes the growth of neurons [and] the formation and strengthening of synapses. . . .”

Fasting can also stimulate the production of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus. He also mentions ketones (an energy source for neurons), and how fasting stimulates the production of ketones and that it may also increase the number of mitochondria in neurons. Fasting also increases the number of mitochondria in nerve cells; this comes as a result of the neurons adapting to the stress of fasting (by producing more mitochondria).By increasing the number of mitochondria in the neurons, the ability for neurons to form and maintain the connections between each other also increases, thereby improving learning and memory ability.“Intermittent fasting enhances the ability of nerve cells to repair DNA.” Intermittent Fasting

IF, or intermittent fasting has been gaining huge popularity recently. It involves total or partial abstinence from food for pre-defined periods of time. Some of the most famous natural health gurus, on line and off, emphatically advocate its detoxifying benefits.

There are various IF disciplines popular amongst health enthusiasts. Some advocate 2 days of fasting per week while eating normally for the remaining 5 days. Called the 5:2 fasting plan, it is advocated by Dr Michael Mosley, who wrote a book about it called: The Fast Diet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting.

Another type of IF is the alternate day fasting whereby, as the name indicates, the fast is observed every other day. This however, has proven difficult for most people, as they have to go to bed on an empty stomach during fasting days, or every other day.Finally, an effective fasting method recommended by Dr Mercola, entails restricting your eating time to a window of 8 hours in any given 24-hour period.

One recommended way of doing it — which was tested by the BBC’s Michael Mosley in order to reverse his diabetes, high cholesterol, and other problems that were associated with his obesity — is what is known as the “5:2 Diet.” On the 5:2 plan, you cut your food down to one-fourth of your normal daily calories on fasting days (about 600 calories for men and about 500 for women), while consuming plenty of water and tea. On the other five days of the week, you can eat normally.

Another way to do it, as mentioned above, is to restrict your food intake between the hours of 11am and 7pm daily, while not eating during the hours outside of that time.Bottom line, how you think about your diet is, in my opinion, one of the most, if not the most important part of staying healthy. How you think about what you are putting in your body is important, and I believe this will eventually be firmly established in the untainted, unbiased, uninfluenced medical literature of the future.

Physical effects of fasting

"Fasting is the greatest remedy --

the physician within." ~Paracelsus

Fasting has been called the "miracle cure" because the list of physical conditions improved by fasting is long and varied. Cited most often are allergies, arthritis, digestive disorders of all kinds, skin conditions, cardiovascular disease, and asthma. Because fasting initiates the body's own healing mechanisms, any ailment may show improvement.

Fasting frees up energy so healing can beginFasting is a wonderful antidote for our usual over-indulgences. There's nothing wrong with enjoying our food, but excess food on a continuous basis does create a burden for the body. When it must handle more than is comfortable and appropriate for it, it will suffer.

Imagine at work how you feel when you're handed a huge work load--more than you can handle in your 8-10 hours per day, more than is comfortable and appropriate for your job title (or salary level). You're under duress. But you WILL cope. You MUST cope. You must make decisions. You attend to the most important and urgent of matters and set aside those that can wait for another day. This is what our bodies do when they're overworked; they tuck things away for another day. Whatever tasks can be postponed will be. And more work is dumped on them at every meal- or snack-time, whether they're ready or not. This is why fasting is a beautiful gift you give to yourself. A vacation for your weary, overworked, under-appreciated body.

Fasting and Weight Loss

Fasting has been practiced for centuries. But can it really help you lose weight and get healthier?It sounds so simple - no choices, no counting calories, no cooking. Just say 'no' to food, and start fasting for quick weight loss and other health benefits.

After all, Beyonce did it. She said she lost 20 pounds by fasting (and using a concoction of syrup, lemon juice, water and cayenne pepper) for her role in Dreamgirls.But what about the rest of us mortals? We wonder:Is fasting an effective way to lose weight?

If you weed through all the controversy, you'll find that most medical experts agree on one thing: fasting is not a healthy weight loss tool.

"The appeal is that [fasting] is quick, but it is quick fluid loss, not substantial weight loss," says Madelyn Fernstrom, PhD, CNS, founder and director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Weight Loss Management Center."If it's easy off, it will come back quickly" -- as soon as you start eating normally again, she says.Even some proponents of fasting for other medical purposes do not support fasting for weight loss. Some say it can actually make weight problems worse."Fasting is not a weight loss tool. Fasting slows your metabolic rate down so your diet from before the fast is even more fattening after you fast," says Joel Fuhrman MD, author of Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Plan for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss and Fasting and Eating for Health.Fasting for weight loss carries other health risks as well.While fasting for a day or two is rarely a problem if you are healthy, "it can be quite dangerous if you are not already eating a healthy diet, or if you've got liver or kidney problems, any kind of compromised immune system functioning, or are on medication -- even Tylenol," says Fuhrman, a family physician in Flemington, N.J..

Even worse for dieters is that fasting for weight loss "distracts people from the real message of how to lose weight: lower fat intake, eat five fruits and vegetables a day, drink water and stop drinking other liquids, walk 30 minutes a day, and get more sleep," says Fernstrom, an associate professor of psychiatry, epidemiology, and surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

In addition, other practices that are often combined with fasting for weight loss, such as colon cleansing, carry their own risks.

"Fasts are sometimes accompanied with enemas to cleanse your intestinal tract, and that can be very dangerous," says Fernstrom. "The intestinal tract has a lot of good bacteria. When you are changing that balance, the good bacteria are affected, too."

Does Fasting Detoxify the Body?

Here's where the debate gets intense."There is no scientific evidence it will detox the body. The issue of fasting to cleanse the body has no biological basis because the body is real good at that by itself," says Fernstrom. "The liver is a natural detox center; the lungs, the colon, the kidneys, [the lymph glands] and the skin get rid of toxins."But Fuhrman, who has supervised hundreds of patients' fasts for medicinal purposes, disagrees."We know that the body is unable to rid itself of toxins when we eat a diet low in nutrients," and that applies to most Americans, even those who think they are healthy, he says."Americans eat 51% of their diet from processed foods and foods low in phytochemicals and antioxidants," he says. "So you see a buildup of waste products in the cells -- AGE, advanced glycation end products -- that build up in cellular tissues and lead to atherosclerosis, aging, diabetes, nerve damage, and the deterioration of organs. This is basic science and physiology every doctor learns in medical school."Along with improving your overall diet, fasting is one solution to that buildup of AGE, according to advocates like Fuhrman."Fasting allows the body to most effectively remove these waste products," he says. "The body is designed to fast; we do it every night."How does fasting remove toxins from the body? When you go without eating for more than a day or two, the body enters into ketosis. Ketosis occurs when the body runs out of carbohydrates to burn for energy, so it burns fat."And the fat is where the body stores many of the toxins it absorbs from the environment," Fuhrman says.

Fasting to Treat DiseaseFasting advocates also claim that the practice can effectively treat serious health conditions, from arthritis and colitis to heart disease and depression.In his practice, Fuhrman tells WebMD, he has seen fasting -- combined with improving the diet before and afterward -- eliminate lupus, arthritis and chronic skin conditions like psoriasis and eczema. He says he has also seen fasting heal the digestive tracts of those with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, and lower blood pressure.

"Fasting followed by a vegetarian diet interferes with the immune system's activities, especially if the immune system is overreacting, as it does with ," and other auto-immune diseases, he says. He cites half a dozen studies published in medical journals ranging from the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism to the Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology.Studies published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and The Journal of Nutrition in 2003 showed that mice forced to fast every other day, while eating twice the normal amount of food on non-fasting days, had better insulin control, neuronal resistance to injury, and other health indicators than mice fed calorie-restricted diets.

Fasting may yield psychological benefits as well.

"I use very brief fasting with my patients to help them cope with stress and depression," says Agnese Barolo, a life coach in contemplative practices in New Rochelle, N.Y. "I start them with just a few hours so they learn to say no to food. Its the first step in taking control of their lives."Many are so encouraged that they try longer fasts, she says."I know some doctors say there is no scientific evidence for the curative powers of fasting," Barolo says. "But there is a reason every culture in every country has practiced some form of fasting for thousands of years."

Spiritual and Religious Fasting

Whether fasting can help rid the body of waste buildup is a matter of controversy. But fasting has been used for religious and spiritual purification for centuries.Nearly every religious text you can name, from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible to the Quran and the Upanishads, calls upon followers to fast periodically as a rite of spiritual purification, penitence, or preparation for union with God.

Here is a verse from the Old Testament attesting to the fact that your health will be restored quickly by fasting.

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Spiritual condition effects health

3 John 1:2Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Patricia Bragg Ph.D. author of "The Miracle of Fasting" writes "Proven throughout history for physical, mental and spiritual rejuvenation, fasting promotes cleansing and healing; helps normalize weight, blood pressure, cholesterol; rebuilds the immune system; and helps reverse the aging process. If we are to get these poisons out of our bodies we must fast. By fasting we give our bodies a physiological rest. This rest builds Vital Force. The more Vital Force we have, the more toxins are going to be eliminated from the body to help keep it clean, pure and healthy."

Historical and modern day quotes on the value of fasting.

Below are some of the best fasting quotes from both modern medical and health professionals as well as famous historical figures. History shows us that fasting was considered a natural therapy for so many of the ails of the past. Modern professionals are telling us the same is still true; that fasting will alleviate a host of ailments that plague us in our modern world. The fasting quotes are divided into four categories: Historical, Modern M.D.s, Other Health Professionals, and Religious Writers and Figures.

Historical"Fasting is the greatest remedy-- the physician within."Philippus Paracelsus, one of the three fathers of Western medicine

"Instead of using medicine, better fast today."Plutarch, a Greek biographer and moralist

"The best of all medicines is resting and fasting."Benjamin Franklin

"Everyone has a doctor in him; we just have to help him in his work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. ...to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness."Hippocrates, one of the three fathers of Western medicine

"A little starvation can really do more for the average sick man than can the best medicines and the best doctors."Mark Twain, in My Debut As a Literary Person

"Every fool can fast, but only the wise man knows how to break a fast."G.B. Shaw, writer

"Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor."Egyptian pyramid inscription, 3800 B.C.

Modern M.D.s"I believe that fasting is the "missing link" in the Western diet."

"From a medical point of view, I believe that fasting is not utilized often enough."

".... fasting is one of the best overall healing methods because it can be applied to so many conditions and people."

"Fasting is the single greatest natural healing therapy. It is nature's ancient, universal 'remedy' for many problems. Animals instinctively fast when ill."all from Elson Haas, M.D. in Staying Healthy with Nutrition

"Due to [the] effects of fasting, a fast can help you heal with greater speed; cleanse your liver, kidneys, and colon; purify your blood; help you lose excess weight and water; flush out toxins; clear the eyes and tongue; and cleanse the breath."James F. Bach, M.D., in Prescription for Nutritional Healing

"Therapeutic [water] fasting accelerates the healing process and allows the body to recover from serious disease in a dramatically short period of time."

"Fasting, combined with nutritional competence, removes the most significant causes of disease."

"Therapeutic fasting is not a mystical or magical cure. It works because the body has within it the capacity to heal when the obstacles to healing are removed. Health is the normal state. Most chronic disease is the inevitable consequence of living a life-style that places disease-causing stressors on the human organism. Fasting gives the body an interlude without those stressors so that it can speedily repair or accomplish healing that could not otherwise occur in the feeding state."

"The job of fasting is to supply the body with the ideal environment to accomplish its work of healing."

"The body's wondrous ability to autolyze (or self-digest) and destroy needless tissue such as fat, tumors, blood vessel plaque, and other nonessential and diseased tissues, while conserving essential tissues, gives the fast the ability to restore physiologic youth to the system. By removing or lessening the burden of diseased tissue, including the fatty tissue narrowing the blood vessels, fasting increases the blood flow and subsequent oxygenation and nutrient delivery to vital organs throughout the body."all from Joel Fuhrman, M.D., in Fasting and Eating for Health

"Man is the only 'animal' who persists in eating when he is sick, even though he may have no appetite and food makes him nauseous."

"Fasting is a calming experience. It is restful. It relieves anxiety and tension. It is rarely depressing and it is often downright exhilarating."Alan Cott, M.D., from Fasting: The Ultimate Diet

"Fasting is the strongest appeal to the human being's natural powers of healing and self-rejuvenation, on both a spiritual and corporeal level."Heinz Fahrner, M.D.

"I often observe in the fasting participants that by four days of fasting, concentration seems to improve, creative thinking expands, depression lifts, insomnia stops, anxieties fade, the mind becomes more tranquil and a natural joy begins to appear. It is my hypothesis that when the physical toxins are cleared from the brain cells, mind-brain function automatically and significantly improves and spiritual capacities expands."Gabriel Cousins, M.D. (psychiatry)

"Although beginning my practice in fog-covered medical superstition, I came to the conclusion that only nature can practice medicine."

"I contend that during illness feeding becomes a burden to the sick. It uses energy that otherwise would be used to fight the illness."both from Dr. Edward Dewey

"I must say in all seriousness that fasting when combined with a properly selected diet is the nearest approach to a 'cure-all' that is possible to conceive-- profoundly simple and simply profound!"John Tilden, M.D.

"Religious ascetics, who led their lives abstaining from food, came to the conclusion that fasting improved not only their spiritual state, but also their physical condition, and through fasting many diseases could be cured."Dr. Inamura Motoo

"I assert that fasting is the most efficient means for correcting any disease."Adolph Mayer, M.D., from his book Fast Cures - Wondercures

"Fasting creates a condition of low concentration of toxic wastes in the circulatory system. This is sensed by the plasma membrane of each cell and each cell will then let go of its load of toxic wastes."Ron Kennedy, M.D.

Other Health Professionals

"Fasting is like being a gifted sculptor who knows how to take areas of fatness and thinness and give them proper form."Otto Buchinger, Jr.,director of a fasting clinic

"The practice of fasting tacitly acknowledges the fact that ours is a self-healing organism. Healing occurs naturally if it is allowed; improper or excessive food simply thwarts the natural ongoing healing processes. Forcing a sick person to eat 'to keep up his strength' overlooks the fact that digestion uses up strength too: more often than not, the available strength is better used for healing the problem at hand than for digestion."Annemarie Colbin, from Food and Healing

"I do not think it is possible to over-emphasize the fact that the physical sensations of fasting are, for the most part, far more pleasurable than the real or illusory delights of feasting."Herbert Shelton, in Fasting Can Save Your Life

"We must restore fasting to the place it occupied in an ancient hierarchy of values 'above medicine'. We must rediscover it and restore it to honor because it is a necessity."Buchinger Clinics

"The skin becomes more youthful [during fasting]. The eyes clear up and become brighter. One looks younger. The visible rejuvenation in the skin is matched by manifest evidences of similar but invisible rejuvenescence throughout the body."Herbert Shelton, water fasting overseer

"When we fast, energy is freed for a thorough housecleaning of the system. The body becomes lighter, more flexible; the mind becomes clearer and more creative. Greater intuitive powers may develop and deep spiritual insights may be experienced after a period of time. A feeling of well-being arises when the energy is freed in this way -- problems suddenly become solutions and ideas flow from nowhere."Kripalu Center for Holistic Health, from their book The Self-Health Guide

Religious Writers and Figures

"Fasting is a natural method of healing. When animals or savages are sick, they fast."Paramahansa Yogananda

"The purpose of fasting is to loosen to some degree the ties which bind us to the world of material things and our surroundings as a whole, in order that we may concentrate all our spiritual powers upon the unseen and eternal things."Ole Kristian O. Hallesby, in Brief Biography(courtesy of dailychristianquote.com)

"Fast because it is good for you...[it can be an] exercise to get the body in shape to be alive to itself. This process frees the self to be more sensitive to the Creation, to ourselves, and to our histories."Christian Century magazine

"Prayer brings us halfway to God, fasting takes us to the gateway of heaven."Muhammad

"Fasting is the soul's nourishment, it reins in language and seals one's lips, it tames desire and calms the choleric temperament. It awakens consciousness, renders the body docile, dispels nightly dreams, cures headaches and strengthens the eyes."John Chrysostom, one of the early founders of the Christian Church

"Seek the angel of fresh air, the angel of water, the angel of sunlight, and the angel of the earth, and invite them to stay with you throughout the fast!"from the writings of the Essenes

"When you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrits." "Be honest, be sincere. Fast for honest and truthful purposes."

Book of Matthew

I believe there is alot of evidence from Real history, Spiritual writings and REAL science, (observation and respeatabilty) which shows us the health benefits of fasting. Please tune in Sunday to hear our interview with Don Tolman about fasting and other interesting topics! Listen to us live at: www.g2voice.isthis Sunday, June 4th at 10 AM CST.

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